The main city is surrounded by a wall, manned by the City Watch of King's Landing, also known as the gold cloaks. King's Landing is the most populous city in Westeros,[2] but unsightly and dirty compared to other cities. Poorer smallfolk build shanty settlements outside the city. The stench of the city's waste can be smelled far beyond its walls.

Layout

King's Landing is roughly square-shaped, sprawling across several miles and defended by tall walls. It is dotted with manses, arbors, granaries, brick storehouses, timbered inns, merchant stalls, taverns, graveyards and brothels. There is a fish market. Hundreds of quays can be found in the harbor. Between buildings the roads are broad, lined with trees and branching alleys and streets.[5]

Behind the quays outside of the walls, there tend to be ramshackle buildings which extend to the walls. These include bait shacks, pot shops, warehouses, merchant's stalls, alehouses, and prostitution rooms.[6]

Poor smallfolk reside in the slums of Flea Bottom, a maze of narrow streets and alleys. They subsist on "bowls of brown", a mystery stew that can include the meat of rats and murder victims, among other things. The richest residents live on the other side of the Hill of Rhaenys from Flea Bottom.[citation needed] According to semi-canon sources the richer areas of King's Landing lie near the Old Gate.[7]

City Gates

Seven is a sacred number for the Faith, thus the reason Aegon I Targaryen had seven huge gates built as the entrances into the capital of King's Landing.[10] Each is protected by portcullis, heavy doors, and armed guard.

The Dragonpit, a huge dome, now collapsed, that used to hold the Targaryen dragons. Its bronze doors have not been opened for more than a century.[5] It is found on the Hill of Rhaenys. The Street of Sisters runs between it and the Great Sept of Baelor.

The Guildhall of the Alchemists beneath the Hill of Rhaenys, stretching right to the foot of Visenya's Hill, along the Street of Sisters. Beneath it is where the Alchemists create and store the wildfire.[11]

Flea Bottom, slum area of King's Landing, a downtrodden area of town. It has pot-shops along the alleys where one can get a bowl of brown. It has a stench of pigsties and stables, tanner's sheds mixed in the smell of winesinks and whorehouses.[12]

The Street of Steel is where most smiths have their forges. It begins on the west of Fishmonger's Square inside the River Gate and climbs up Visenya's Hill. The higher up one goes, the more expensive the shops. At its top is the shop of Tobho Mott.[15]

The Street of Flour contains numerous bakeries. Below the street lies a maze of twisting alleys and cross streets.[12]

The Street of Silk is a street to the northwest of the Dragonpit lined with brothels of varying expense.[16][13]

Military

The City Watch of King's Landing, also called the gold cloaks, is King's Landing's main military formation, in charge of guarding and policing the town and its surroundings. Its men are two thousand strong,[24] the number being increased in times of need or war.[25][1]

The royal fleet guards the entrance to Blackwater Bay, patrolling it and the Blackwater Rush. On occasion royal fleets have been sent to deal with pirates from the Stepstones.[26]

When Aegon finalized his conquest and was crowned Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, many expected that he would make Dragonstone or Oldtown his capital. He unexpectedly decided to build his capital in the new town growing around the Aegonfort,[29] since it was more centrally located than any other and not part of the former kingdoms, setting the king apart from his new vassals.[5] Aegon established the Kingsguard after he and Visenya were attacked in the streets in 10 AC.[10]

Dance of the Dragons

In 98 AC King's Landing held a great tourney to celebrate the fiftieth year of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen's reign. Aided by Septon Barth, Jaehaerys the Conciliator encouraged the building of drains, sewers, and wells in the city, which also became connected with other regions via the kingsroad, Goldroad, and roseroad.[31]

Great Spring Sickness

When the Great Spring Sickness engulfed Westeros in 209 AC, four in ten inhabitants were killed by the outbreak. Funeral pyres which took place in the ruins of the Dragonpit burned nonstop, painting the night sky in the unnatural green of wildfire.[37]

A Storm of Swords

The armies of Lords Tywin and Mace encamp at King's Landing, and other nobles arrive for the upcoming nuptials of King Joffrey I.[52] Hundreds of wayns bring food from Highgarden in the name of Mace's daughter, Lady Margaery Tyrell.[52] The city's master armorer, Tobho Mott, smiths two Valyrian steel swords from Ned Stark's Ice for Lord Tywin.[3] Tyrion welcomes a delegation from Dorne, and he tells Prince Oberyn Martell that there are half a million people in the stinking city, including tens of thousands of soldiers from various hosts.[1]

Amidst growing unrest after the arrest of Queen Margaery by the Faith, Cersei allows Lord Aurane Waters, the master of ships, to launch new dromonds in a show of force. However, Aurane sails from King's Landing when Cersei is herself arrested.[58]

Quotes

Jaime: Smoke, sweat, and shit. King's Landing, in short. If you have a good nose you can smell the treachery too. You've never smelled a city before?Walton: I smelled White Harbor. It never stank like this.

Roro Uhoris, the Cobblecat's cranky old master, used to claim that he could tell one port from another just by the way they smelled. Cities were like women, he insisted; each one had its own unique scent. Oldtown was as flowery as a perfumed dowager. Lannisport was a milkmaid, fresh and earthy, with woodsmoke in her hair. King's Landing reeked like some unwashed whore. But White Harbor's scent was sharp and salty, and a little fishy too.[62]

The morning air was thick with the old familiar stinks of King’s Landing. She breathed in the scents of sour wine, bread baking, rotting fish and nightsoil, smoke and sweat and horse piss. No flower had ever smelled so sweet.[60]